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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Ulster tax sharing: Shawangunk
gets a small piece of the pie
By RACHEL COLEMAN
With the current tax sharing agreement expiring at
the end of the month, Ulster County is thinking about
reapportioning the annual sales tax revenue—specifically a scenario that would mean a loss for the city of
Kingston in the neighborhood of $1.6 million.
While the city of Kingston collectively holds its
breath, Ulster County Legislator Ken Ronk told the
Shawangunk Town Board on Thursday that the final
decision would likely be status quo for Shawangunk.
Ronk explained that sales tax revenue in Ulster
County is divided 85 percent to the county and 11.5 percent to Kingston. Meanwhile, the 20 towns in the county,
including Shawangunk, each get a small slice of three
percent.
“There’s an inequity there,” said Ronk.
Ronk, chairman of the Ulster County Legislature,
said there have been many discussions, and the likely
conclusion will be to decrease Kingston to 10 percent and
leave the towns at the same percentage.
Shawangunk Town Supervisor John Valk pointed out
that other counties distribute the sales tax revenue based
on population and Ronk said if the county did use that
method, Shawangunk would probably “make out better”
than any other town.
In other business, Valk noted that the town board is
working on an agreement with the town of Gardiner to
use their dog shelter facility during the winter months.
The board approved the use of $95,000 to purchase
additional sand and salt for the highway department.
They also approved the request of an applicant currently
before the board to make a new sign for Verkeerderkill
Park, in lieu of recreation fees.
The town board voted to hire Kevin Coleman, a retired
police lieutenant from NYPD, as a new police officer; and
Reliable Cleaning Service of Newburgh, for the cleaning
of the town hall.
Walden accepts STOP-DWI funding
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the STOP DWI program over the same time frame last
year to cover expenses related to the roadblocks.
According to statistics, approximately 11,000 people
die each year nationwide because of driving under the
influence of alcohol or other substances, and the traffic
stops are asmall, but vital part of the effort to decrease
that staggering death toll. “It helps,” Rumbold said of
the funding. “It just gives you a little extra money in the
budget to do stops like that.”
The budget for Walden’s Josephine-Louise Public
Library could be on the rise in the coming weeks, but the
issue will not be decided until after the Village Election
on Tuesday, March 15th. As much as a 9% library budget
increase could be on the table after the upcoming election
is held.
“When the library does their budget, they often go to
the Town of Montgomery and they give us funds towards
the library,” Rumbold said. “Obviously they have a
tight budget and we have a tight budget, and there was
a disparity between what the town residents and village
residents paid for services at the library. So it’s just a
question of why that was, and the Library Board really
wants to investigate this and they really won’t